Expert ESPN channel and applicant for membership International Boxing Hall of Fame Timothy Bradley changed his mind. Earlier, he shared a prediction for the main fight of this week – at night in New York (USA), local WBO light heavyweight champion Joe Smith Jr. (28-3, 22 KOs) will fight with WBC / IBF belt holder Russian Artur Beterbiev (17-0 , 17 K.O.).
Bradley at first stated that the fight would not last more than 6 rounds, but then, apparently, he realized that the audience needed something else – maximum action and intrigue.
New prediction from Bradley: “Great fight! And I’ll stomp for Smith as the fans just don’t give the dude credit. It’s fucking disrespectful to say he has no chance. How is it that the puncher has no chance? Smith is not just a fighter. It’s a lumberjack! So his hands are kapets powerful. And he has a lot of knockouts to his credit. Yes, and Beterbiev has missed blows more than once and ended up on the floor. Therefore, I still believe that Smith has a chance!
“Beterbiev is shorter, his arms are shorter,” Bradley continues to analyze. “So Smith can do long-range boxing with the jab. But he is a good boxer. Dude, what the hell? Think Smith has bad footwork? In order to reach the required angle of attack, a minimum of movement is sometimes enough. You can also hit from a minimum angle for attack. You can, for example, provoke Beter
biev to move, and then abruptly change the angle of attack. You can try to catch him with the side when he breaks into the near one.
Nevertheless, Bradley still agrees that the Russian is the favorite: “The result of the fight can be decided by amateur experience, and it is much more serious for Beterbiev. You can’t buy an amateur school and experience in a store. He knows how to move, how to dive around the front arm and resurface at close range, he knows how to use his style against opponents. He has faster legs, he shortens the distance with lightning speed. Yes, Smith has longer limbs, but Beterbiev is better in infighting. The Russian on the near is very smart and effective in his strikes. He can force you to remove the block and quickly catch on it. He works great with his short levers.”
“But he is even more brutal at the middle distance,” Bradley could not stand it and began to praise the favorite. “He is cruelty itself. If he imposes his distance, then write wasted. But from afar, he often gets a little lost.
Beterbiev-Smith. Mismatch? Yes but no – match preview from WMMAA
Prediction and betting on this fight
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